


Weddings at The Burrow

by storyofeden



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, The Burrow (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24666094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyofeden/pseuds/storyofeden
Summary: Weddings at The Burrow were always splendid affairs.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Weddings at The Burrow

**Author's Note:**

> This story isn't necessarily a happy ending. (Depends on how you look at it, I suppose). It involves a break up, so if that's not your thing, turn back now.

Weddings at The Burrow were always splendid affairs.

Molly would spend weeks preparing the house, the gardens, the party favors, and the feast. Arthur and Kingsley would ensure the security was top-notch, so guests could be comfortable and relax. And everyone would chip in to help wherever needed.

The silver stars and Birds of Paradise at Bill and Fleur’s wedding had added wonder and excitement in a time of darkness. Aunt Muriel did not attend Charlie and his husband’s wedding which had only made that spring afternoon brighter. And George and Angelina’s wedding had been filled with laughter and joy, despite Fred’s heavy absence. Whether before or after the war, the ceremonies were spectacular. They were...magical, for lack of a better word.

This magic, of course, extended to include Harry and Ginny’s wedding. They married on October 31st. Ginny was home for a small holiday. As a chaser on the practice squad of the Holyhead Harpies, she only had a few breaks long enough to have a wedding and short honeymoon. And Harry, fresh out of Auror training, wanted something happy to remember when he thought of the last day in October.

Minerva McGonagall and Hagrid sat in the back row and cried tears of joy. Where McGonagall surreptitiously wiped small tears from her cheeks, Hagrid was openly sobbing into his tablecloth-sized handkerchief. Kingsley presided over the ceremony and his voice may have broken when he pronounced the couple bonded for life. Dennis Creevey stood behind the rows of chairs taking picture after picture, just like Colin would have done. George sat in the front row, murmuring jokes and witty remarks under his breath. Percy kept elbowing him, but it was half-hearted.

Golden snitches had been charmed to flit around the tent above the heads of the guests. Muggle Christmas twinkly lights in all white had been strung up along tent poles and hung from the rafters. Every so often, a snitch would get tangled in a string of lights and someone would have to whip out their wand to help free the snitch. Floating trays of champagne, butterbeer, fire whiskey, and pumpkin juice wound their way through the crowd. Harry and Ginny gazed lovingly at each other while they danced, surrounded by other couples who looked just as smitten.

Weddings at The Burrow really were splendid affairs, but Hermione was not swaying on the dance floor with the love of her life. Instead, she sat at a round table near the edge of the tent in her periwinkle bridesmaids dress while everyone else joined in the festivities. Obviously, she was happy for her two friends. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Harry, and Ginny made him unequivocally happy. They’d loved each other since before his sixth year and their love had withstood a year’s separation, a war, and weeks apart at a time while they each trained for their careers.

Hermione gazed down at the small diamond that adorned her left hand and twisted it around her finger.

When she looked up, she found Ron looking at her. He was talking to Nero, Charlie’s husband of about two years, who worked as an Auror in Romania. They were likely chatting about how Ron’s training went and what kinds of jobs he was likely to go on his first year. Nero was laughing heartily at something and Ron had a smile on his face. But the smile didn’t reach his eyes as he stared back at Hermione and she was sure that the same sentiment was reflected in her eyes.

Ron excused himself from Nero with a friendly nod and made his way across the dance floor to where Hermione sat.

“Hey,” Ron said, pulling a chair closer to her and sitting down.

“Hey,” Hermione smiled.

He jerked a thumb towards the happy couple. “Think they know the rest of us are even here?”

She laughed. “Probably not. I’m sure we could all disapparate and they wouldn’t notice.”

They sat in silence for a moment, then Ron said, “Did you like my Best Man speech? I’ve been working on it for ages.”

“It was very sweet, Ron. I think including the bit about Sirius and Lupin was a nice touch.”

“Would’ve hated it, though. Can you imagine? Sirius would’ve interrupted me to tell everyone to just start dancing and drinking already. Hell, Lupin might’ve joined him, trying to deny all his greatness.”

She laughed again. Now that the war was over, now that they’d grown past most of their teenage insecurities, Ron was always making her laugh.

“That’s my favorite sound,” Ron spoke again.

Hermione looked away from Harry and Ginny to meet Ron’s eyes. “What?”

“Your laugh.” He leaned back in his chair to look out at the guests again. “It’s my favorite sound.”

“Oh,” she blushed and reached a hand over to lay on his. Her left hand. “Should we dance? Or there may still be some food left? Or--”

“It’s over, isn’t it, Hermione?” Ron fiddled with the gold ring on her left hand. He was still staring out, away from her. “You and me.”

Hermione let out a breath, releasing tension in her body she hadn’t known she was holding. She shifted, laying her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes of silence, she nodded, not trusting her voice to say the words.

“Yeah….yeah, alright.” Ron nodded, too. He stopped twiddling the ring on her finger but didn’t let go of her hand.

And so they sat there, hand in hand with her head on his shoulder, for the rest of the celebration. Hermione kept replaying the last four years in her mind in an attempt to pinpoint the moment when it happened, the moment where they fell out of love. Was it during their final year at Hogwarts, finishing their education after the war? Was it before or after he’d started Auror training? Was it before or after her move from the Being Division in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? But no answers came. She couldn’t pinpoint the moment, just like she couldn’t say when, exactly, she fell in love with Ron in the first place.

Eventually, the guests started to leave, and Arthur, Bill, George, and Angelina pulled out their wands and began to clean up. The drink trays went soaring through the air to land stacked in a box in the corner. The golden snitches fluttered down into a box Angelina was holding open for them. Arthur started taking down the twinkly lights by hand, still enthralled by how they worked.

As the tablecloths started floating off the tables, Ron sat up straight, pulling away from Hermione. She slowly pulled the ring off her finger and handed it back to him.

“Ron, I--”

“I know, Hermione.” He stood up and smiled sadly. “I know. I love you, too.”

Ron walked away to help George and Bill wrangle the tables and chairs back into the second garden shed Molly had insisted they needed for all the wedding supplies. Tears welled in Hermione’s eyes as she stood and gathered her bag. A myriad of emotions rushed through her.

Grief. Regret. Guilt. Relief.

She walked around the house and across the yard, towards the apparition point just beyond the wards. Crossing the wards, she took one last look back at the tall eclectic building, at the other guests heading towards the apparition point, at the family just beyond the house that had been her family, too. She could only hope this wouldn’t be the last time she would be here, that Harry and the Weasleys didn’t shun her because she and Ron grew apart. She could only hope that she’d be welcomed back someday.

Perhaps, Hermione thought as she apparated to her flat in London, but she would no longer get to have a wedding as splendid as a wedding at The Burrow.


End file.
